Snow Falling on Cedars [DVD] [Widescreen]

From the director of SHINE comes this multi-layered drama of love, betrayal, and forgiveness, based on the novel by David Guterson. In a small Pacific Northwest town in the 1950s, a Japanese-American man (Yune) is tried for the murder of a man based on a long-standing grudge. Reporter Ishmael Chambers (Hawke) may be able to prevent injustice from happening, but he and the man's wife (Kudoh) are childhood sweethearts who split apart when the Japanese community of the town was sent to internment camps after Pearl Harbor. Ishmael must balance his sense of betrayal and lost opportunity with the desire to do the right thing. Director Hicks uses a series of overlapping flashbacks to tell his story in a complex, fable-like manner, joined by magnificent cinematography and music.